OCCUPY

Peggy Peterson – Occupy Bala Falls – Sept. 17, 2014

no one is going to do it for us

Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle.

abolish corporate personhood

consumerism, passivity, apathy, distraction

there is a lot that can be done

change of consciousness

People with power don’t give it up unless they have to. And that takes work.

revolution changes the institutional structure of society

Failure by Design

anarchist – organized on the basis of free and voluntary participation

Power is in the hands of the governed. The only way the rulers can overcome that is by control of opinions and attitudes.

..growth can mean simpler lives and more livable communities…Part of what functioning free communities like the Occupy communities can be working for and spreading to others is just a different way of living which is not based on maximizing consumer goods, but on maximizing values that are important for life. That’s growth, too, just growth in a different direction.

regarding the housing bubble:
It’s a disaster. This kind of thing is going to happen as long as you have unregulated capital markets, which furthermore have a government insurance policy. It’s called ‘too big to fail’: if you get in trouble, the taxpayer will bail you out – policies that, of course, lead to underestimation of risk…a ‘financial casino’

regarding organizing:
Well that’s a big change in the nature of the society and culture. It didn’t happen by magic. It wasn’t a gift from above. It came from extensive organizing activities and corresponding actions which finally broke down a lot of barriers and freed things up. That’s the way changes take place. And all those methods are still available.

quotes from Noam Chomsky’s Occupy, Brooklyn, New York: Zuccotti Park Press, 2012.